Kereru - Dorie School: 2011

Dorie School have started our new Topic called Bigger, Faster, Stronger. To tune into this topic we did a whole-school challenge. There were eight different challenges about simple machines, and we rotated round each activity in mixed groups.

The activities were: rollers, levers, wheels and axle (and cogs), pulleys, screws, and wedges.

Here are some pictures of people working hard on their challenges.

Rebecca searching for the answer!

From 3 of the Kereru bloggers - Charlotte, Danielle and Rebecca.

Groovy Grass Guys!!!

Lately in Kereru we have been making Groovy Grass Guys.
Some made Groovy Grass Girls!!!
Once we had finished making our Grass Guys, we then wrote a set of instructions on how to make one.
At the moment our Grass Guys are mostly bald, and are just beginning to sprout hair (grass!)

Aren't they pretty :-) !!!

We have now put them in the sunshine and they are making real progress.

From 3 of the Kereru boggers - Charlotte, Danielle, and Rebecca.

A Visit from Ms Walls' Mother

On Thursday last week Ms wall's mother came to talk to Kereru and Toroa about how it was when she was a little kid growing up during World War 2. Mrs Walls lived in London, and was sent to New Zealand just before they began bombing it. Her dad died when she was little and she was just living with her mum.

Mrs Walls came to New Zealand when she was only 6 years old as a child evacuee. She was all alone and had no brothers or sisters. She was in New Zealand for 5 years, returning to London when she was 11.

Mrs Walls like New Zealand so much that she came back again when she was 15 and has lived her whole life here.

Kereru have been doing a drama unit about child evacuees in World War 2. It was great having Mrs Walls come and talk to us.

By Aimee.

Picture Posters!!!

Well, lately in Kereru we have been learning about Refugees and Asylum Seekers.

We have done another activity about Reefuges and Asylum Seekers!!! The class got put into groups. Then we picked a poster we wanted to work with. Ms Reader put the timer on for a few minutes for the groups to discuss the questions first. After the discussion we answered the questions.

We hung up our work in the classroom when we had finished it.

By Danielle and Lydia.

MADAGASCAR!!!

Lately in Kereru we have been studying Madagascar the movie.
First we watched the movie, we were as quiet as mice! After the movie, we had to do a worksheet about the animals. We worked in groups of five. When we did our worksheet we studied the animals off the information sheet.
Finally, we thought about what the message in the movie was about. The messages were:

Believe in yourself
Follow your dreams
Don't be a sheep
Be brave
Have courage

Rememeber to use these messages and your dreams will come true.

From two of the Kereru bloggers, Rebecca and Charlotte.

Unicycle Sketches

Lately in Kereru we have done our first sketches of the term. They were sketches of a unicycle.

First we did a practice then we went on to our good copy. We copied a real unicycle to look at all the details. When we did our unicycles we had to do the shading nicely and correctly.

It took us a week and a couple of days to get our sketches finished. When we finished our sketches Ms. Reader glued our names on them and stuck black paper on the back as a frame.

In the end they all looked SPECTACULAR!!!

Ms.Reader liked them so much that she hung them up in the classroom!!!!

From two of the Kereru bloggers, Sidonie and Rebecca.

Picture Puzzles!!!

In topic we have been learning about Refugees and Asylum seekers. Refugees are people who are escaping their country from danger. Asylum seekers are people who have escaped their country and are looking for a home in a new country.

Anyway, Ms Reader got the class to do some puzzles. The puzzles are of different people in different situations. The class got to be in groups of three, but everyone in each group had two pieces of the other group members' puzzles.

Aimee's busy busy group working away.

Danielle's group thinking which piece next?

By Aimee and Danielle

Dorie School's Wonderful Wheels Day!

Dorie School brought their wheels to school and did exciting activities. We celebrated wheels day for our topic on transport.
What fun we had! We were zooming around the school on our wheels.

Fransisco and Dylan having a great time.

With Mr. Townsend, we did slot car racing. To make it more exciting, whoever won the most in the groups got to play against the other group winners in the finals. After the finals, the teachers had a go and our teacher, Ms. Reader, won.

The winners of all the groups are getting ready for the finals!

What a fun day we had! By the end of the day we were all tired and ready to go home.

By Charlotte and Jake.

What has Kereru been up to lately?

Our New Writing Programme

On Monday, Kereru learnt a new Writing programme. We learnt how to make our own book on the website. We got a buddy and started playing around on Storyjumper. Lots of groups had funky pictures and cool title pages! We had a wonderful time playing on the website, but that's not the only thing that Kereru has done . . .

Assembly
On Thursday the School had assembly with Kereru presenting. Kereru did their presentation about the boats they made. Some people showed off their little boats or they said a little speech about what we did.

Have a fantastic Queen's Birthday Weekend!

From Aimee, Charlotte and Rebecca - some of the Kereru bloggers.

3 Amazing things Kereru have done!

Cross Country

Last week Dorie School did Cross Country.

We were all proud of all the people that got a placing and everybody else did well too.

We can't believe how far everybody got. We did so much better than last year. Dorie School is so happy about Cross Country!!!

Sailing and Making Rafts

Kereru had some fun and decided to make rafts as part of our technology unit in Topic. We were looking at making innovations - this means making things better from what they used to be.

Ms Reader said that if our rafts sunk in the swimming pool, she would throw one of us in to save it. We all screeched with horror!!! "Yuck, no way it's too slimy and green!!!" We had a fantastic time sailing the rafts. It was funny watching the rafts get from one side to another. Some of them just went round in circles!!!

Book Week

This week we have had Book Week. On Monday we made fairytale finger puppet shows. We filmed them but we have had some technical difficulties so we haven't seen them yet. On Tuesday, we visited the Ashburton Public Library and had lunch in the Ashburton Domain afterwards.

On Wednesday we did Ms Reader's book quiz, and once again Olivia's team were the winners! Well done guys!! On Thursday we dressed up as book characters. We all looked so flash! We also had Amirira's and Sidonie's mum read to us. It was a really good story.

On Friday we did lots of reading with other teachers, classes and visitors to our school. Thanks to all the Dads and Grandads who came to share books with us on Friday afternoon.

From Charlotte, Aimee, Danielle and Rebecca - some of the Kereru Bloggers.

Welcome to term two!

Hi,

Welcome to a new term and we hope you all had a fantastic holiday.

Topic

In topic we are doing an animal transport challenge! We had to get split into groups of four, then we got to have a sheet of paper and write some facts down about the animals. The animals were a Snow Leopard, a West Lowland Gorilla, a Great White Shark, a Sea Turtle, a Short-Tailed Fruit Bat, and a Polar Bear. Then we got some vehicles which were a Cattle truck, a Road bike, a Holden Ute, a Milk Tanker, a Station Wagon, and a Refrigerated Truck. After that we had to match the animals with the closest vehicle we could think of, so that they could go safely back to the zoo they had escaped from. We also had to supply food and care for the animals during their journey. We can't wait for the results!

Scruffy

Unfortunately over the holidays Scruffy was very sick and had to go to the vet. She was in too much pain so the best thing we could do was say good bye and get her put down. She has been buried in the school grounds. She got buried next to room 1.

Have a great weekend!
- from Danielle, a Kereru Blogger.

WASTEBUSTERS!

Day 1- Hi Sharon

On day 1 we learnt about landfills and what bad things could happen to the aquifers in the ground.
An acquifer is the water in the ground. It's like little creeks and rivers deep in the mountains.
Sharon told us how leachae, the poison that leeches into the ground from garden waste and food scraps in the landfill, could harm the acquifers in the ground. The leachae comes if you put food scraps and garden waste in your black rubbish bags and it goes into a land fill, and it rots for a couple of years, and then it goes around and eats machinery, and then forms the poision called leachae! EWWWWW!!!!

Looking at Tiger Worms with Sharon.

Day 2 - BUGS, BUGS, BUGS

On day 2 we got to look at bugs that you might find in your compost bin. There were beetles, slugs, spiders and centipedes - yuck!!!! Anyway, we had to figure out what their real names were. Did you know the daddy long leg spider looks like the European Harvestman spider and people mix these spiders up all the time!
The slugs that we looked at could grow to about 30cm leaving a slimy disgusting sticky trail - blah!

Using the Bug Viewer to look at bugs up close.

A tub of bugs!

Day 3 - Slimy Slithery WORMS!!!!

On day 3 we made some compost and a worm farm. Worms will eat anything that's dead - even human hair! In the compost we put horse manure, dry leaves, human hair, grass clippings, weeds, and to keep it moist, we added a little bit of water. Did you know that a worm will eat leather because it is made from a cow? For the worm farm we split into four groups. Two of the groups had water and the other two groups ripped paper then gave them to the water people when they had ripped it all. The water people dunked the paper into their bucket of water then they put it in a tray. Then Sharon stacked up the trays and put a pile of worms and scraps on top! After Sharon had finished talking we got to look at the compost. Man it stunk - argh bad, bad smell!!!

Tiger Worms getting cosy in their new home.

Dunking paper in the water made it wet and soggy.

Hope you all have happy, happy holidays!

Catch us later - from the Kereru Bloggers!!!

Making Timelines!

In Kereru, Ms Reader gave us a transport challenge about timelines. We had to put the pictures in the right order. We had a bike timeline, a car timeline, and a boat timeline. It was really hard to work some of the pictures out, but the boat timeline team got all of theirs correct! They got a lollipop each. Great work team!

The fantastic aeroplane challenge!

Last week Kereru had a team challenge. We had to make an aeroplane out of 6 straws, 6 pieces of A4 paper, 1m of sellotape, 3gm of Blu-tack, and 2 paper clips. We could cut things with scissors but we weren't allowed to attach the scissors to the plane which we thought was very funny. You weren't allowed to scrunch the paper up either. The winning group was Annie, Rebekah W., and Charlotte with 4.20m. The second group was Chaedis, Lydia, and Hannah with 4.09m. It was quite tricky but it was fun anyway.

Jack, Aimee and Princess hard at work!

2nd place - great job!

The winning team - well done girls!

Working hard boys!

Help we are desperate!!!

Just a reminder about next Wednesday's tabloid sports. So far we have 3 activities by Ms Reader, Miss A and Mrs Benny.
We would just absolutely love some more activities. So please can you help us!!!! With hope we are aiming to get 6, 7 or 8 games, but we only have three so please can you help?

Help!!! from the Kereru bloggers.

Art - Blending and Shading

Over the last two weeks, Kereru have been looking at shading and blending in Art. We have worked hard to paint some fantastic-looking backgrounds by blending two primary colours together to make other colours. We then printed off the letters of our names using WordArt and 'coloured' them in by blending different shades of one of our primary colours using soft crayons. Finally, we cut around our letters very carefully and arranged them on our backgrounds in an interesting and eye-catching way. Ms. Reader thinks that Kereru have made a fantastic job of their artworks and that they look really good hanging up on our classroom wall. Everyone should be very proud of their work!